Welcome Guest (Log In | Register)

“Tom's a whipper snapping 22 but his musical taste in the boompty has all the hallmarks of the much older Luke Solomon.” – I-DJ MAGAZINE 2003

Tom took his first steps into DJing properly when he put on a one off night called Homegrown in his home town of Northwich back in July 2000. The night was run alongside two of his friends (both DJs) Adam B & Nathan Landry. Shortly after the night they were contacted by Levi's and Mixmag to play alongside Tom Stephan on the 'Levis Student House Party Tour', which took in Leeds, Newcastle and Sankeys Soap in Manchester, this gave them a taste of what Djing out to crowds was like and they loved it.

In 2002 Tom and the other two lads set up www.homegrown-music.com as a base to promote themselves as DJs. The site has grown immensely over three years and is know internationally for its 'Homegrown Hotmix' concept in which two guest DJs per month supply mixes for people to stream and download, previous guests have included Jazzanova, Miss Kitten, Mylo, Tom Stephan, Justin Martin, Natural Rhythm, Mazi, Tony Thomas and many more underground DJs. Alongside the two guest mixes the residents (Adam, Tom, Nathan & new addition Woody) each take it in turns for two of them to do a mix every other month. In the 3 years in has been running the site has received over 7 million hits. The website also features an extensive back catalogue of mixes to stream, archived radio shows, photo galleries, video, monthly record reviews, forthcoming dates and a busy message board. A new feature on the site that started in 2005 was the Homegrown Radio Show (presented by Adam & Tom), which airs weekly on Sundays and Thursdays on www.pulseradio.net.

Djing wise Tom has been playing out for the last 5 years all over the UK and across Europe , in this time he has held down 3 residences the most successful of which was a weekly residency at Manchester night ‘Landed' back in 2003. Each week he was warming up for the legendary Hacienda resident Graeme Park as well as many other top-notch names, doing the warm up slot enabled Tom to gain invaluable experience into building a vibe up from nothing, something which he still enjoys doing today. Over the last 2 years Tom and the other lads have worked hard at getting the Homegrown name known and this has shown in the amount of gigs and places they have travelled to and played at, with the parties getting better and better each time. Notable gigs in the UK have included Tribal Sessions at Sankeys Soap, The Masque Theatre in Liverpool , The Gallery at Turnmills in London and doing various summer parties down at the Bomb in Nottingham . As well as the UK Tom has ventured out to the continent on numerous occasions and played at some amazing parties, the highlights of which were playing at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia (on top of a fort!), the Zagreb Film Festival both in 2004 and 2005 (spinning to over 1500 people), playing at the awesome Cova Den Xoroi in Menorca (set in a cliff top cave) and doing a small tour of Belgium in August 2005.

The logical progression to the studio started for Tom in late 2003 when he joined Adam to learn the ropes. The two of them produced ‘Homegrown Headz' in Jan 2004 and it was released in May 2005 on Midlands based label Lost My Dog, gaining excellent reviews from DJ Mag, I-DJ and lots a good reactions from DJs. In June 2005 they released the amusingly titled ‘Honey I've Lost My Panties' EP on Southside Shuffle which also received excellent reviews and reactions

“I've lapped up everything these guys have released in their short career. These four trippy little buggers are evidence there is more yet to come. From the jazzy, bendy "VR Nightz" to the twisted tech-ery of "Light Em Up", it's like a Midlands house version of MFF. Excellent stuff” – I-DJ MAGAZINE 2005

2006 looks to be another good year for Tom, plans are underway for more European ventures as well as starting a new monthly residency with Manchester night Stylus who Tom has played for on numerous occasions. A remix for Lost My Dog is due out soon and he plans to get back into the studio alongside Adam to produce some more deep house cuts.